Artsnight - Season 4
Season 4
Episodes
Poets at the BBC
Magazine arts show. Over the decades, the BBC has captured many of the most famous poets for posterity. This programme trawls through the archives to show how bards turned into broadcasters, featuring some of the most beloved poets Britain has produced.
Michael Palin Meets Jan Morris
Magazine arts show. Veteran broadcaster Michael Palin travels to north Wales to interview the legendary travel writer Jan Morris. Originally born as James Morris, Jan shot to fame as part of the team that successfully climbed Mount Everest in 1953. She spent the rest of the decade as a journalist travelling the world, interviewing figures such as Che Guevara, and producing reports for BBC Panorama from Hong Kong and Japan. In the 1960s, she turned her attention to writing books about cities and countries, before undergoing gender reassignment in 1972, a process chronicled in her autobiography Conundrum. Now in her 90th year, Michael Palin meets Jan and finds out the secret to her long and happy life.
When Julie Walters met Willy Russell
Julie Walters, one of Britain's most popular actresses, meets Willy Russell, to find out how a 15-year-old dropout from a working-class suburb of Liverpool became one of the most successful playwrights in the history of modern British theatre.
The Man Booker Prize 2016
It's that time of year again, when readers turn to the Man Booker Prize shortlist for a view on the very best of fiction in the English-speaking world.
For this episode of Artsnight, David Baddiel, author, comedian and former Booker Prize judge, introduces the six novels chosen by 2016's judges. Reviewers including Mariella Frostrup, Val McDermid and George the Poet meet the authors and slip between the pages of the 2016 Man Booker Prize shortlist.
2016 The Year of King Lear
This year's hottest play was written over 400 years ago - Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear. With five major productions taking place across 2016, this film looks at why Lear resonates so deeply with contemporary audiences. The programme includes contributions from Diana Rigg, Timothy West, Antony Sher and Nicholas Hytner on why Lear is widely viewed as Shakespeare's towering achievement.
What Has the Turner Prize Ever Done for Us?
Magazine arts show. The Turner Prize is probably the most prestigious contemporary art prize in the world. It puts art in the headlines - though not always for the right reasons. In this programme, critic and broadcaster Waldemar Januszczak looks back over three decades of critical acclaim, public outcry and artistic controversy, hearing from the winners, nominees and judges to find out what the history of the prize can tell us about our relationship to the relevance and purpose of contemporary art.
The Brits Who Designed the Modern World
If there were an olympic league table for design, Britain would be right at the top. Since the Second World War, British designers have revolutionised our homes, our workplaces, our roads and our public institutions. In November 2016, the Design Museum opens its new ú83m home in Kensington. To mark this great moment for British design, BBC Arts profiles ten great living British designers. Arts reporter Brenda Emmanus meets and profiles our 'Top 10', to find out what inspires them to make such phenomenal objects and to explore how designers have responded to society's evolving tastes.
Know Your Enemy - Stephen Poliakoff in Conversation
The dramatist Stephen Poliakoff has long been obsessed with the secret history of Britain in the 20th century. His latest work, Close to the Enemy, looks at the clandestine work of the secret service after the end of the Second World War.
Historian and broadcaster David Reynolds talks to Poliakoff about the inspiration behind Close to the Enemy, as well as the always tricky relationship between history and fiction.
Robert Rauschenberg - Pop Art Pioneer
Alistair Sooke celebrates the protean genius of one of America's most prolific and original artists, Robert Rauschenberg. Fearless and influential, he blazed a trail for artists in the second half of the 20th century, and yet his work is rarely seen here in the UK. That is about to change with a major retrospective at Tate Modern in December 2016. Rauschenberg was the first artist to win the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 1963, creating a crucial bridge between the abstract expressionists of the 50s and the pop artists who emerged in the 60s. Famous for his 'combines' that elevated the rich junk of life to the status of high art, he continued to work right up to his death in 2008, collaborating with dancers, scientists and social activists on a startlingly broad array of projects. Alastair travels to the east coast of the USA to talk to those closest to Rauschenberg.
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Since its inception in 1975, "SNL" has launched the careers of many of the brightest comedy performers of their generation. As The New York Times noted on the occasion of the show's Emmy-winning 25th Anniversary special in 1999, "in defiance of both time and show business convention, 'SNL' is still the most pervasive influence on the art of comedy in contemporary culture." At the close of the century, "Saturday Night Live" placed seventh on Entertainment Weekly's list of the Top 100 Entertainers of the past fifty years.
Dune: Prophecy
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Forged in Fire
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The Bold and the Beautiful
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Shifting Gears
Shifting Gears centers on Matt, a stubborn, widowed owner of a classic car restoration shop. When Matt's estranged daughter and her teenage kids move into his house, the real restoration begins.